Lets put the Swiss team into perspective

[Feech]

I am an Irishman who lives in Switzerland and I really can't believe what I'm reading here.

I remember the same kind of nonsense about the Swiss being crap and that Ireland would beat them in Dublin being posted here, oh, less than 2 years ago.

The Swiss did not have a great Euro 2004 but you know what, they were there because they finished higher than Ireland in the qualifying group - that is how you qualify, not by seething at TV screens saying that should be us because we're great craic.

I follow the Swiss league and it is a hell of a lot better than people are making out. (A bit similar to a lot of Irish people's comments about their own league which the majority of people never go to). The lack of knowledge about the Swiss team is evident in comments about the Yakins - there are plenty of other players Ireland should be worried about than one just coming back from injury (who by the way scored a goal from inside his own half on the last day of the season - did that show up on your betting website?) and one who has been shunted around Europe through no fault of his own.

Maybe Ireland will beat them, but it will be the same Ireland team which has already dropped 4 points to Israel, a team you all surely less highly rate.

What I'm saying is, this is going to go down to the wire and anyone who thinks it will be a cakewalk should just remember the Swiss victories in both Basel and Landsdowne before they get too carried away.

If you really want to talk about players on an individual basis, remember the options Kerr had for his substitution against Israel - someone who has never played at the highest level or an unfit player.

Read that Swiss guy's post again - the Swiss foreign legion are playing in a lot of top leagues, and there are some in the Swiss league who can also make the step up no problem.

Rant over.

[FarBeag]

well said, i am with you on that one.

[Stuttgart88]

Player for player we shouldn't have been worried about Israel either. Home or away.

I still can't understand why they only beat Cyprus in 90th inute though. What was that all about Feech? Should we be worried by a team that can only manage that type of result? What about the 4-1 defeat in Russia when it counted in 2003?

[onenilgameover]

Player for player we shouldn't have been worried about Israel either. Home or away.

I still can't understand why they only beat Cyprus in 90th inute though. What was that all about Feech? Should we be worried by a team that can only manage that type of result? What about the 4-1 defeat in Russia when it counted in 2003?


Wed, Sept 10
Russia 4 v Switzerland 1

Russia is not an easy place to go...look what happened to us there...also they did win the group...and when it really counted they did us over...Mick Mc Carty hangover excuses don't count IMO........

[Stuttgart88]

and when it really counted they did us over...Mick Mc Carty hangover excuses don't count IMO........

I think it was a factor in Dublin, as was gary Breen's defending, but definitely not in Basle I agree.

[thejollyrodger]

sounds like your living in heidi country for too long Feech. Obviosuly your beliving the hype the swiss media are pumping out cos its all a load of wánk. there is nothing in that switzerland team that is going to cause us any problems when the come to lansdowne. There crap, they have an average league but are no world beaters.

Fair enough, were mediocre as well with only 3 good players but we can beat anyone at home.

[carnstien]

--------Given
Kelly, Cunningham, Breen, Harte
Holland, Kinsella, Healy, Kilbane,
------Duff, Keane.

God that team really was shockingly bad. The only midfielder actually capable of creating anything was played out of position up front. It really was obvious Mick's time had come.

Todays team should destroy that side and I think if Kerr selects out strongest 11 against the Swiss (which he won't but if he comes close enough) we should easily overcome them.

[eirebhoy]

Feech - I'm sorry if I offended you but imo Switzerland are on par with Israel. Both are good teams though of course. When a team is being underrated I tend to build them up. If a team is being overrated I play them down. Thats just my way. If everyone was saying we're going to beat the Swiss I'd be trying to say exactly what you just said.

Anyway, its not Yakin's fault that he can't get a club. Of course it bloody well is. If he was playing better he'd be getting the club. And the league is poor on international standards, full stop. So is the Eircom league, I don't think anyone would deny that.

[Gerrit]

sounds like your living in heidi country for too long Feech. Obviosuly your beliving the hype the swiss media are pumping out cos its all a load of wánk. there is nothing in that switzerland team that is going to cause us any problems when the come to lansdowne. There crap, they have an average league but are no world beaters.

Fair enough, were mediocre as well with only 3 good players but we can beat anyone at home.

I hope Ireland wins the game, but you underestimate the players of Switzerland, and that's very dangerous. Hope Kerr and the players don't do the same, or the "Heidi country" boys could bring lot of people back with their two feet on earth.
By the way, the classic Heidi character is from Tirol, which is in Austria. ;)

[stojkovic]

By the way, the classic Heidi character is from Tirol, which is in Austria. ;)
Er ..no she's not ;

"Johanna Spyri's classic story of a young orphan sent to live with her grumpy grandfather in the Swiss Alps is retold in it's entirety in this beautifully bound hardcover edition. Heidi has charmed and intrigued readers since it's original publication in 1880"

[Gerrit]

thenn I'm just confused about a kid's song in my native Dutch about a gal named Heidi running a Tiroler chants school in Austria :)

[thejollyrodger]

Gerrit, Ireland spends most of the pre match always talking up the oppostion. It gets us nowhere.

Were a better team now, we should really be putting away weaker teams 2 , 3 , even 4 nill. Thats because of the way we play and the 3 world class players we have.

A crap team is still a crap team no mater what way you want to dress it up. We have to beat these 3 teams.

[Junior]

A couple of good posts from feech and our new Swiss friend.

I am all for positive thinking, but some of the arrogance of our fans on this forum is unbelievable. "we are a much better side" "we've improved since Basel 2003", "Its a poor domestic league, therefore they are shoite"

I remember an identical thread for the last game in basel and perhaps even the one in 2003. and I said the same then.............

Where do you get this confidence from? The game in paris apart, we have done absoloutely nothing in this group so far but play very very average, in fact let alone the Swiss & French being conccerned, I doubt the Cypriots are fearing us coming to them and probably fancy their chances at home.

The game against the Faroes was another example of a very poor performance. Im not interested in hearing tales of woe due to the end of a long hard season, the poor pitch or weather conditions. It was shockingly bad and but for a soft penalty & deflected effort...who knows, they had the better chances. I doubt the Swiss or French were calling for urgent tactics meetings to discuss how they were going to overcome the mighty Irish.

I think we all know it. The remaining 3 games will be low scoring, nail biting games, where we will inevitably play poorly at times, Its going to be fingers crossed that we do enough,



Were a better team now, we should really be putting away weaker teams 2 , 3 , even 4 nill. Thats because of the way we play and the 3 world class players we have.

A crap team is still a crap team no mater what way you want to dress it up. We have to beat these 3 teams.

The crap team, is that us?...........probably.

[FarBeag]

Well said !my thoughts exactly.We are a very average team apart form 3 to 4 players and they were sh*te last time out.Blame what you like,pitch weather,timing etc etc and none of the three teams will be scared of us.Its all in our own hands and if we are good enough we will win all three games but as always it will be a struggle.

[eirebhoy]

I am all for positive thinking, but some of the arrogance of our fans on this forum is unbelievable. "we are a much better side" "we've improved since Basel 2003", "Its a poor domestic league, therefore they are shoite.
Weird that the 3 quotes you posted are from me. I'm certainly not arrogant.

"we're a much better side" - We are. That is not arrogance.

"we've improved since Basel 2003" - Of course we have. A lot.

""Its a poor domestic league, therefore they are shoite." Well I never called them shíte but if most of our back 5 played in the Eircom league I wouldn't be rating our chances very highly.


I remember an identical thread for the last game in basel and perhaps even the one in 2003. and I said the same then.............
So far I have given teams the respect they deserve, sometimes too much of it.
I was trying to build up Israel before any of us seen them play:
http://foot.ie/showthread.php?t=15266

I would have snatched a point from Basel before we played them without a shadow of a doubt too.

This is the first time I have played down our opposition in a long, long time (if ever) and the reason I am doing it is because people think they are better than they are.

We were always crap away so I wouldn't take anything from that. We have been convincing enough at home anyway. We played well against Cyprus, did the job against the Faroes after a tough match in Paris and played well against Israel.

[Junior]

Weird that the 3 quotes you posted are from me. I'm certainly not arrogant.

"we're a much better side" - We are. That is not arrogance.

"we've improved since Basel 2003" - Of course we have. A lot.

""Its a poor domestic league, therefore they are shoite." Well I never called them shíte but if most of our back 5 played in the Eircom league I wouldn't be rating our chances very highly.


So far I have given teams the respect they deserve, sometimes too much of it.
I was trying to build up Israel before any of us seen them play:
http://foot.ie/showthread.php?t=15266

I would have snatched a point from Basel before we played them without a shadow of a doubt too.

This is the first time I have played down our opposition in a long, long time (if ever) and the reason I am doing it is because people think they are better than they are.

We were always crap away so I wouldn't take anything from that. We have been convincing enough at home anyway. We played well against Cyprus, did the job against the Faroes after a tough match in Paris and played well against Israel.


It wasn't intentional that I picked your 3 quotes, they were just some of those that I could remember without trawling back through the thread. The arrogance comment was meant in a more general way - however I stand by it.

You obviously stand by your points, but I still for the life of me cannot see how you think we are a better side than the Swiss, based on the current and last campaigns we are not, and we've proved as much on the pitch where it counts.

I don't see any material improvement on the last qualifying campaign, admittedly the performance in basel was very very poor, however I still haven't really seen anything (Paris apart) that fills me with the confidence or superiority that you feel.

I don't know the Swiss team in depth (nor have I the time to quickly refresh my knowledge), and I don't want to knock the EL. However, whilst the swiss league is not one of the top 3 or 4 in europe it still has teams who compete in the latter stages of european competitions (by that I mean past prelim qualfication) So far the EL hasn't had this and to compare the 2 is probably over the top. Celtic know only too well how not to underestimate for example Basel.

I hope Im wrong, but as I said already we've had this type of thread twice before and both times we've been bitten hard on the ass. I just don't see where you get this confidence in our team - it certainly isn't based on performances and thats what counts.

[Robitaille]

Wed, Sept 10
Russia 4 v Switzerland 1

Russia is not an easy place to go...look what happened to us there...also they did win the group...and when it really counted they did us over...Mick Mc Carty hangover excuses don't count IMO........

Am I wrong, or did Ireland lose there too, 4-2 ?






but I'll tell you our team is improving.

Interesting post.

How come Switzerland found it so hard to beat Cyprus at home? Or was that just a blip?

Because as I was saying, we are improving, that is to say IMPROVING IN PROGRESS...
I mean, there are SIGNS which make me think in Sept/Oct we will be better then now:
- Those youth I already mentioned. You know Ziegler and Senderos. I am sure Barnetta (Leverkusen), Degen (Bor. Dortmund) and Rochat (Rennes) will do well and get quite a lot of playing time next season. Vonlanthen, it depends on where he is going to play for. And Margairaz has already established in Zurich.
And others (Baykal, Behrami, Lichtsteiner, Zambrella, etc...) are "pushing"... => more competition for starting eleven => more competition "should" increase our perfomances... should...
- Murat and Hakan Yakin and Marco Streller didn't play against Cyprus, they will in September and October. (Marco Streller is our 2nd best striker and before injury he was in Stuttgart starting eleven).
- Cabanas is back on track after a very bad 2004
- This summer some swiss (Rochat, Lichtsteiner, Behrami, Gygax, Spycher, Schwegler, Huggel perhaps) are going to top leagues clubs and should get stronger... should...
- Hakan will play in Berne, "crappy swiss league" :rolleyes: , but he will get time to play. That's just what we need: When fit, Hakan can be deadly and very important for our strikers.
- even Henchoz could be again a good alternative, if he finds a good club to play for.
Those are predictions+hopes+facts, and all this together make me feel much more confident then 1 year before.

Then, this Cyprus game. Yes, we didn't play well at all. Reasons? I don't know, perhaps a bad night, perhaps we are crap, perhaps the missing players.. or perhaps because we had a tough game 3 before in Paris? A bit of everything I would say.
Then, in the end every game has its on story, otherwise what should people think about you after 45 min. in the Fär Oer game (0:0) ??

[Robitaille]

I don't know the Swiss team in depth (nor have I the time to quickly refresh my knowledge), and I don't want to knock the EL. However, whilst the swiss league is not one of the top 3 or 4 in europe it still has teams who compete in the latter stages of european competitions (by that I mean past prelim qualfication) So far the EL hasn't had this and to compare the 2 is probably over the top. Celtic know only too well how not to underestimate for example Basel.



While Swiss players are generally better and more competitives than 2-3 ago, the league is a bit weaker. Or, at least less attractive. The reason is IMO mainly due to the loss (bankruptcy and relegation) of tradionally strong clubs such as Servette, Lausanne, Sion, Lugano or Lucerne (Unfortunately, other have suffered/are suffering from financial problems, ie. Grasshoppers, NE Xamax, etc...)
They were replaced by teams with less appeal, such as Thun, Schaffhausen or Yverdon..

In fact, Servette, Lugano, Sion, etc.. had some appeal and managed some good purchases abroad(not stars, just good ones). Yverdon or Thun don't have the same tradition and appeal (and money...).
But I am sure some of these old teams will be back quite soon.

Then, the league itself, with only 10 teams, is repetitive. I think many fans would like to see at least a 12/14-teams league. But those Federation's burocrats think is better with only 10 ..

[eirebhoy]

I don't know the Swiss team in depth (nor have I the time to quickly refresh my knowledge), and I don't want to knock the EL. However, whilst the swiss league is not one of the top 3 or 4 in europe it still has teams who compete in the latter stages of european competitions (by that I mean past prelim qualfication) So far the EL hasn't had this and to compare the 2 is probably over the top. Celtic know only too well how not to underestimate for example Basel.
Last season the Swiss teams were getting knocked out by teams on par with the Eircom league. The Swiss league is still better than the EL but as I said, it is on par with the SPL minus the Old Firm atm.

Forgetting the last campaign as Kerr took over a team and had no time to change it. This campaign I've been happy with. Israel away we controlled the game, something neither France or Switzerland did. France away we played well. Switzerland away we were crap admittedly. Israel home we were very good. I'm confident, although not arrogant. I certainly wouldn't be at all suprised if we fail to beat Switzerland but we really should.

[Stuttgart88]

Am I wrong, or did Ireland lose there too, 4-2 ?


Then, in the end every game has its on story, otherwise what should people think about you after 45 min. in the Fär Oer game (0:0) ??

Or yours after 72 mins :)

Point taken though.

But for fear of sounding daft, our result in Moscow was weird. We gave them all 4 goals (even scoring one of them for them). If we hadn't conceded straight from the kick off after getting it back to 2-1 there was no way we weren't going to equalise the way the game was going. Weird game.

If Harte hadn't hit the bar after 10 minutes or Duff hadn't gone off injured after 15 minutes who knows what would have happened us in that campaign?

I've no doubt the Swiss are a decent side. I just think that we're better, or at least we should be. But we'll still have to play our very best to get the win and we'll also have to have our best players out there because the cupboard is quite bare in certain positions.

[Feech]

Last season the Swiss teams were getting knocked out by teams on par with the Eircom league. .

Really?

How come Vaduz who play in the Swiss Second Division knocked out Longford last season then?

[Feech]

sounds like your living in heidi country for too long Feech. Obviosuly your beliving the hype the swiss media are pumping out cos its all a load of wánk. there is nothing in that switzerland team that is going to cause us any problems when the come to lansdowne. There crap, they have an average league but are no world beaters.

Fair enough, were mediocre as well with only 3 good players but we can beat anyone at home.

They are of course not world beaters, but have been good enough to beat Ireland twice in the last 2 years.

Beat anyone at home?

Like Israel?

[eirebhoy]

Really?
Well, Wil were knocked out by Slovakian team, Banská Bystrica, in the 2nd qualifying round. Servette lost to Újpest twice in the 2nd qualifying round of the UEFA cup also.

[Feech]

Well, Wil were knocked out by Slovakian team, Banská Bystrica, in the 2nd qualifying round. Servette lost to Újpest twice in the 2nd qualifying round of the UEFA cup also.

True but you are being disingenuous - Wil as cup holders were in the Second Division and could not play in Wil as their stadium did not meet regulations.

Servette have gone bankrupt since then so they were obviously not in a utopian position.

I notice no one mentions Basel's draws against Inter Milan and Schalke 04, not to mention Lille, all top teams in Europe's top leagues.

Young Boys lost to Red Star Belgrade which is no shame.

[Feech]

Interesting post.

How come Switzerland found it so hard to beat Cyprus at home? Or was that just a blip?

Hi,

I didn't see that match so I can't really comment - guess it was just one of those days.

[eirebhoy]

I notice no one mentions Basel's draws against Inter Milan and Schalke 04, not to mention Lille, all top teams in Europe's top leagues.
Shels also got decent results against Hajduk Split, Depor, Lille. Doesn't mean the Eircom league is top quality. :) You obviously no more than me but I don't think the Swiss league is strong and the Swiss defenders are not coming up against top players every week.

[thejollyrodger]

They are of course not world beaters, but have been good enough to beat Ireland twice in the last 2 years.

Beat anyone at home?

Like Israel?


2 years ago they were good we were bad. They were playing at their best, we were playing at our worst. just look back at our team, duffer up front, killer on the wing, connolly upfront AFAIK need i go on ?

yeah beat ANYONE. the game against Israel was a FREAK. If Robbie ever gets injured again we know what do do - Elliott on. Its a whole different game now.

[Donal81]

I remember watching the game between Ireland and Switzerland in Lansdowne Road, McCarthy's last. I was in the car with my mates beforehand, stuck in traffic near Bird Avenue, and we were all waiting for the line-up. "He has to put Duff on the left, he absolutely has to," said a mate of mine. Tommy Butler at that stage was getting his game ahead of Kilbane at Sunderland but McCarthy still couldn't get over this notion of having Kilbane on the left and Duff up front. Duff had been proved, painfully so, to be a poor striker and the World Cup had shown him to be a world-class winger. Surely, something had to give.

Nope. Out came the line-up and it was unchanged from Moscow, more or less. I liked McCarthy but that was stubborness for the sake of being stubborn. He picked his team because it was his team, not the best one, and I could honestly see no reason for it, much as I liked him.

The Swiss were terrible that day and had absolutely nothing going for them but when they scored, such was the state of our team, it wasn't a surprise. When they scored again, it wasn't a surprise either.

McCarthy finally had the epiphany: Duff was moved out to the left wing after half an hour. HALF AN HOUR! The logical response was to subsitute Kilbane and bring on a striker. But no, McCarthy put Kilbane up front or just behind Keane or in some bizarre five-man midfield inside Duff. Kilbane didn't seem to have a clue and nor did McCarthy or anyone else. Keane was on his own upfront (or was he beside Kilbane?) and the Swiss had him in their pocket.

Kilbane was substituted after an hour and the cheer that went up...I never thought I'd hear that at an Irish soccer game. Kilbane didn't deserve that but he can only play where he's told and can only play as well as he can, which makes McCarthy responsible.

The team that got beat in Dublin was a mismanaged mental wreck of a team. McCarthy had lost his managerial marbles and the team was exposed for what it had been - utterly reliant on Roy Keane with players not doing the business getting by as a result.

We can beat the Swiss this time around. Kerr has made some mistakes but this team is not the team that got beat in Dublin. I generally think we're better organised and better managed.

[ken foree]

that first 20 minutes against israel, some of the windscreen wiper-like interchange play between reid and duff across midfield was a glimpse of what ireland could be, fluid and purposeful. robbie had the skinning of israel's backs with that type of ball coming over his shoulder.

[Slash/ED]

I'm the same as Donal, I nearly died when I saw that starting line up. The writing was on the wall from there.

[Feech]

Shels also got decent results against Hajduk Split, Depor, Lille. Doesn't mean the Eircom league is top quality. :) You obviously no more than me but I don't think the Swiss league is strong and the Swiss defenders are not coming up against top players every week.

Call me a Bohs fan but Shels were also quite lucky! ;)

The draw in Split got them through and Deportivo were only back training.

But you know what, those results do show that there is more quality in the LOI than the average person (who does not attend games) will admit.

(cf Bohs wins V Aberdeen and Kaiserslautern and Cork's run last year).

[eirebhoy]

If we play like we did for the first 25 mins against Israel we will take Switzerland.
If we play like we did in the entire 90 minutes against Israel we'll beat the Swiss. :)

[Donal81]

If we play like we did in the entire 90 minutes against Israel we'll beat the Swiss. :)

Agreed. Israel have been blessed with luck which may well last them the entire way through the campaign. But we played them off the pitch and they had nothing to offer. We'll do the same to the Swiss but they don't seem blessed with the same luck. Here's to a 2-0 win and laying that particular bunch of demons to rest.

[Junior]

Yes we are more than capable of beating the Swiss. We need a drastic improvement in recent performances (I include the Israel game in that - despite a number of chances we didn't actually play that well, particularly in the second half)

I know we can only focus on our team - But who is to say that the Swiss won't step it up a gear, they haven't looked great so far and so they are due to improve - they do have some decent players.

If we manage a win - it will take our best performance so far in the qualifying campaign to get it.

[eirebhoy]

If we manage a win - it will take our best performance so far in the qualifying campaign to get it.
I disagree. If we play like we did in any of our home games so far bar the Faroes I can't see us not winning.

[Qwerty]

"we're a much better side" - We are. That is not arrogance.


On paper yes, but you keep talking about games and stats like it were an algebraic equation and not 11 versus 11 on a given day. So far the evidence is clearly that Ireland is lagging behind Israel and Switerland in playing to their potential. We have to prove it on the field of play, and we have to do it starting now.

[Qwerty]

I disagree. If we play like we did in any of our home games so far bar the Faroes I can't see us not winning.

Are you forgetting the Cyprus game, very flattering scoreline! Flat performance and our defense gifted at least 2 clear cut scoring chances.

[eirebhoy]

On paper yes, but you keep talking about games and stats like it were an algebraic equation and not 11 versus 11 on a given day. So far the evidence is clearly that Ireland is lagging behind Israel and Switerland in playing to their potential. We have to prove it on the field of play, and we have to do it starting now.
Judging by the players we both have and our peformances to date in this group, we are the better team.

[tetsujin1979]

Agreed, if you consider that you should at least draw all your away games, and win all your home ones, we've only dropped points against Israel, and have the arguable best run in left in the Group, along with Israel (Faroes twice and Swiss away).

[Junior]

Judging by the players we both have and our peformances to date in this group, we are the better team.

Haven't seen all the Swiss performances

However,

1)- They were the better side against us in the last match.
2)- They had a similar performance against the faroes away as we did.
3)- I believe they were under the cosh against France for large parts of the game, though they got the same result as we did?
4)- They hammered the faroes at home - we didn't
5)- They Got lucky against Cyprus at home, we were more convincing but not by much.
6)- They drew with Israel away (Think they were winning 2-1) - pretty similar to ourselves?

I love your confidence eirebhoy and I hope it rubs off on the team and fans like me, but I've been kicked in the balls too many times to think we can beat these without a 110% performance, better than anything to date.

[Donal81]

Yes we are more than capable of beating the Swiss. We need a drastic improvement in recent performances (I include the Israel game in that - despite a number of chances we didn't actually play that well, particularly in the second half)

I know we can only focus on our team - But who is to say that the Swiss won't step it up a gear, they haven't looked great so far and so they are due to improve - they do have some decent players.

If we manage a win - it will take our best performance so far in the qualifying campaign to get it.

You're spot on mate. We're a much better side than the Swiss but we haven't shown it yet. I suppose I believe we're a better side more than I can actually prove it. I think the great nights are yet to come but we'll have to pull the finger out and play like we did against the Israelis at home. We through absolutely everything at them like the good old days but it just didn't come. I think it will against the Swiss and the French.

[eirebhoy]

Haven't seen all the Swiss performances

However, ...
6)- They drew with Israel away (Think they were winning 2-1) - pretty similar to ourselves?

I wouldn't say it was similar to ourselves. We controlled the game in Tel Aviv while the Swiss were under the cosh plenty of times. Home advantage should be enough to do it. We will be dominating this game and its only a matter of the defence being on their toes for the Swiss break and our strikers on form.

[Junior]

We will be dominating this game and its only a matter of the defence being on their toes for the Swiss break and our strikers on form.

Firstly it a big assumption that we'll dominate followed up by a very big IF our defence and strikers are on form....................still not convinced.

But enough of my realism, we can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[eirebhoy]

Firstly it a big assumption that we'll dominate followed up by a very big IF our defence and strikers are on form....................still not convinced.

But enough of my realism, we can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well Cunningham and O'Brien are always on form. Hopefully Finnan is first choice at right back by then. That leaves O'Shea. :o

BTW, we will dominate. A lot of it is down to psychology and the Swiss will respect us more than they ever had when playing us. They'll play on the break. We'll be all out attack.

[tetsujin1979]

While the optimism on the board is still gratifying, the fact remains that by the time we play Switzerland, the result could be academic, to be honest, I'd feel terrible going into the game knowing only a win would guarantee qualification

[Junior]

BTW, we will dominate. A lot of it is down to psychology and the Swiss will respect us more than they ever had when playing us. They'll play on the break. We'll be all out attack.

Until we go 1-0 up, then we'll drop deeper and deeper trying to protect the lead until we concede the equaliser.

My summary is based on past performances. What is yours based on?

[elroy]

If the Swiss are as poor as we are making them out to be, then:
1-How come they beat us so comfortably in the last game of the Euro campaign and were the better team in the drawn game in this campaign?

2-What chances Israel beating Swiss in Basle and then they would be guaranteed at least second, if not first?

[eirebhoy]

Until we go 1-0 up, then we'll drop deeper and deeper trying to protect the lead until we concede the equaliser.

My summary is based on past performances. What is yours based on?
Also passed performances. We did get deeper and deeper against the Swiss because they were putting a lot of pressure on us and our concern was not to concede while they had nothing to lose. We have now lost our lead 3 times in this campaign. The players clearly learnt from the previous Israel match as every time we got the ball in Lansdowne we attacked. Now they know that even a 2 goal advantage isn't good enough so they'll try and score whenever they have the ball.

[Junior]

The players clearly learnt from the previous Israel match as every time we got the ball in Lansdowne we attacked. Now they know that even a 2 goal advantage isn't good enough so they'll try and score whenever they have the ball.

Because it was 2-2 at that stage and it was a game that we obviously had to win!!!! prior to that we made a defensive substitution in Kavanagh - we haven't learned anything IMO.

If we are 2-0 up and still attacking gung-ho against the swiss i'll eat my hat

[eirebhoy]

Because it was 2-2 at that stage and it was a game that we obviously had to win!!!! prior to that we made a defensive substitution in Kavanagh - we haven't learned anything IMO.
It was the wrong subsitution but it certainly wasn't defensive. We played 4-4-2 for the entire match. Kerr didn't want to risk an our of form Elliott. He was wrong but he wasn't going defensive.